Kettle-type and other barbecues are well known and conventionally utilize charcoal as a source of heat. The use of gas burners as heat sources is also known.
Charcoal is typically, but not exclusively, employed in the form of briquettes. Whatever form is employed, charcoal has a number of disadvantages, including relatively high expense. It takes considerable time to bring charcoal' briquettes up to heat temperature and they are relatively dirty. Furthermore, charcoal briquettes are difficult to extinguish and reuse, resulting in waste. Gas burners do not impart the desired barbecue flavor to cooked foods due to the lack of smoke characterizing a wood-based fire.
As will be described in greater detail below, the present invention incorporates an apparatus which can be readily employed to modify a conventional barbecue, such as a kettle-type barbecue, to utilize fuel pellets, most typically, wood-based pellets.
Wood-based pellets are becoming increasing popular for household heating use, being employed in stoves and fireplaces.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,823,684 discloses a barbecue specifically designed in its entirety to utilize wood-based pellets as a heat source. The pellet-fired barbecue includes an elevated barbecue pan fired by a pellet-burning pot mounted below the bottom of the barbecue. A heat baffle plate is disposed within the pan above the top of the pot, and a forced-′ air mechanism produces movement of heated air within the barbecue.
The arrangement of U.S. Pat. No. 4,823,684 is exclusively adapted and dedicated for use with wood-based pellets and there is no teaching or suggestion whatsoever in U.S. Pat. No. 4,823,684 of an arrangement utilized to convert or retrofit conventional barbecues, such as kettle-type barbecues, for use with fuel pellets; such as wood-based pellets.
A search relating to the present invention—also located the following patent documents which are believed to be further representative of the current state of the art in this field: U.S. Pat. No. 5,251,607, U.S. Pat. No. 595,540, U.S. Pat. No. 740,866, U.S. Pat. No. 364,795, U.S. Pat. No. 4,442,825, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2002/0166460, U.S. Pat. No. 6,173,644, U.S. Pat. No. 4,512,249, U.S. Pat. No. 6,016,797, U.S. Pat. No. 5,018,455, U.S. Pat. No. 6,223,737, U.S. Pat. No. 4,574,712, U.S. Pat. No. 4,787,322 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,144,939.
The above-identified references do not teach or suggest the novel combinations of structural elements and method steps disclosed and claimed herein.